Young designers create award-winning Web site

From left, Amy Lowe, 10, left, Tia Lynch, 10, Jesslyn White, 9, and Bekah Lowe, 10, right, show off the Web site they created at West Blocton Middle School as part of an international competition.

STAFF PHOTO | DUSTY COMPTON

By Wayne GraysonSpecial to The Tuscaloosa News

Published: Friday, July 4, 2008 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 10:07 p.m.

WEST BLOCTON | Thanks to the Internet, we live in a small world.

Facts

ON THE WEB

Visit the team's Web site at library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00085/home.html

And with the help of an international competition, four girls from West Blocton Elementary have tried to make the world a little bit smaller.

Looking for students with a foundation of technological skill, teacher Annette Harris chose Amy Lowe, Bekah Lowe, Tia Lynch and Jesslyn White to take part in ThinkQuest International 2008, a global Web site building competition held by the Oracle Education Foundation.

The contest challenges students to create innovative Web sites to share with their peers around the world. This year included 972 teams from 60 countries.

The girls worked for eight months, sometimes coming into school early and leaving late, to create their Web site, titled 'Color Our World With Kindness.' The site shares ideas, suggestions and projects that promote kindness toward friends, strangers and the community at large.

Their efforts took second place in the 12 and younger age division of the competition. The second place finish earned each of them a laptop computer worth $1,250.

But the four of them didn't do it alone. They had help from two girls in Brazil.

'We planned on having teammates from another country,' Harris said. 'One of the purposes of the competition is to promote global collaboration so it was really important to have students from somewhere else help out.'

Harris said the groups came together after she met the Brazilian girls' coach at an Oracle-sponsored event.

To bridge the continental divide, the team used a Web cam to talk to each other on a few occasions, while most of their communication was done through a site called Think.com and a Web application called Google Translate.

Think.com allows accredited schools to connect through personal bloglike Web pages and encourages students to clearly communicate their ideas through the use of technology.

Google Translate takes any passage entered into the site and translates it from one language to another from a selection of 23 languages.

The teams would e-mail each other on Think.com and translate the messages they received with Google Translate. The two groups will meet for the first time at a September award conference where they will also receive their computers.

Amy Lowe said she felt good from the beginning about how her team would finish in the competition.

'We thought maybe we would do well,' she said. 'We had people say we would at least get an honorable mention, so that made us feel good that other people outside of the people we were working with would say that.'

The Web site included interviews with family and friends, Internet research and planned events involving their classmates at West Blocton Elementary.

Tia conducted interviews with her own family.

'I interviewed my family around town,' she said. 'I wrote questions down before [the interviews] and asked the most important ones.'

The girls said the site would not have turned out as well as it did without their schoolmates' help.

'I feel like we should all be getting to go to San Francisco, as a school,' Beckah Lowe said.

Jesslyn, who created many of the games on the site, said she considers the competition a valuable learning experience.

'I enjoyed learning about computer programs and how to use them,' she said.

Though they all said they want to continue working with computers, the girls' career aspirations range from cosmetologist to veterinarian.

Participating in the competition helped the team members learn how to use professional Web development programs. The girls are proud of their new skills and Harris said she was amazed at how far they had come.

'They know a lot more than I do about technology now,' she said. 'I have to ask them questions all the time.'

<p>WEST BLOCTON | Thanks to the Internet, we live in a small world. </p><p>And with the help of an international competition, four girls from West Blocton Elementary have tried to make the world a little bit smaller.</p><p>Looking for students with a foundation of technological skill, teacher Annette Harris chose Amy Lowe, Bekah Lowe, Tia Lynch and Jesslyn White to take part in ThinkQuest International 2008, a global Web site building competition held by the Oracle Education Foundation.</p><p>The contest challenges students to create innovative Web sites to share with their peers around the world. This year included 972 teams from 60 countries.</p><p>The girls worked for eight months, sometimes coming into school early and leaving late, to create their Web site, titled 'Color Our World With Kindness.' The site shares ideas, suggestions and projects that promote kindness toward friends, strangers and the community at large.</p><p>Their efforts took second place in the 12 and younger age division of the competition. The second place finish earned each of them a laptop computer worth $1,250.</p><p>But the four of them didn't do it alone. They had help from two girls in Brazil.</p><p>'We planned on having teammates from another country,' Harris said. 'One of the purposes of the competition is to promote global collaboration so it was really important to have students from somewhere else help out.'</p><p>Harris said the groups came together after she met the Brazilian girls' coach at an Oracle-sponsored event.</p><p>To bridge the continental divide, the team used a Web cam to talk to each other on a few occasions, while most of their communication was done through a site called Think.com and a Web application called Google Translate.</p><p>Think.com allows accredited schools to connect through personal bloglike Web pages and encourages students to clearly communicate their ideas through the use of technology.</p><p>Google Translate takes any passage entered into the site and translates it from one language to another from a selection of 23 languages.</p><p>The teams would e-mail each other on Think.com and translate the messages they received with Google Translate. The two groups will meet for the first time at a September award conference where they will also receive their computers.</p><p>Amy Lowe said she felt good from the beginning about how her team would finish in the competition.</p><p>'We thought maybe we would do well,' she said. 'We had people say we would at least get an honorable mention, so that made us feel good that other people outside of the people we were working with would say that.'</p><p>The Web site included interviews with family and friends, Internet research and planned events involving their classmates at West Blocton Elementary.</p><p>Tia conducted interviews with her own family.</p><p>'I interviewed my family around town,' she said. 'I wrote questions down before [the interviews] and asked the most important ones.'</p><p>The girls said the site would not have turned out as well as it did without their schoolmates' help.</p><p>'I feel like we should all be getting to go to San Francisco, as a school,' Beckah Lowe said.</p><p>Jesslyn, who created many of the games on the site, said she considers the competition a valuable learning experience.</p><p>'I enjoyed learning about computer programs and how to use them,' she said.</p><p>Though they all said they want to continue working with computers, the girls' career aspirations range from cosmetologist to veterinarian.</p><p>Participating in the competition helped the team members learn how to use professional Web development programs. The girls are proud of their new skills and Harris said she was amazed at how far they had come.</p><p>'They know a lot more than I do about technology now,' she said. 'I have to ask them questions all the time.'</p>